Biography
Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and onetime CIA agent. A co-founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review, he was the only writer to have won the National Book Award in both nonfiction (The Snow Leopard, 1979, category Contemporary Thought) and fiction (Shadow Country, 2008). He was also a prominent environmental activist.
Matthiessen's nonfiction featured nature and travel, notably The Snow Leopard (1978) and American Indian issues and history, such as a detailed and controversial study of the Leonard Peltier case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983). His fiction was adapted for film: the early story "Travelin' Man" was made into The Young One (1960) by Luis Buñuel and the novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965) into the 1991 film of the same name.
In 2008, at age 81, Matthiessen received the National Book Award for Fiction for Shadow Country, a one-volume, 890-page revision of his three novels set in frontier Florida that had been published in the 1990s. According to critic Michael Dirda, "No one writes more lyrically [than Matthiessen] about animals or describes more movingly the spiritual experience of mountaintops, savannas, and the sea."Matthiessen was treated for acute leukemia for more than a year. He died on April 5, 2014, three days before publication of his final book, the novel In Paradise on April 8.
Filmography
all 11
Movies 10
self 6
Writer 4
TV Shows 1
Knight of Cups (2015)
Doc (2008)
Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier (1991)
Dead Birds (1963)
Adventure
Information
Known ForActing
Birthday1927-05-22
Deathday2014-04-05 (86 years old)
ReligionBuddhism
ChildrenAlex Matthiessen
CitizenshipsUnited States
AwardsSociety of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction, Helmerich Award, National Book Award for Fiction, William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, John Burroughs Medal
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
Last updated:
- Peter Matthiessen
- Filmography
- Information